Food expenses

[doodle]

Reading through this NPR article about americans living paycheck to paycheck.

https://www.npr.org/2020/12/16/9412920 ... -adds-up

..it shocked me how much of these peoples budgets went to food. It also surprised me overall how much Americans spend....no wonder so many people are living paycheck to paycheck! They are economic idiots! I live for about 15k a year in an expensive town. I work part time and still end up saving about 500 a month.

Anyways back to food...I do my shopping at Costco and spend about 400 a month total which feeds me and my girlfriend. I probably consume like 4500 calories a day and she about 2500. We eat meat about 5 days a week and have a pretty healthy diet.

I'm curious what others here spend on food.

[Kriegsspiel]

It is shocking to see how badly people mismanage their finances, once you gain an understanding of finance. The fact that these people were willing to be interviewed about how badly they manage their finances speaks volumes. Some very useful cautionary tales in here.

I spent $286/mo on "groceries" this year, of which maybe $250 was for food. I did some stocking up early in the year on non-perishables. In the last 6 months I spent $200 on groceries, which is more normal.

[doodle]

Screenshot_20201218-064846.png (193.79 KiB) Viewed 8271 times

I just don't understand how I'm supposed to have any sympathy for these two. First off, their income doubled during pandemic. Secondly, how on earth do two people supposedly strapped for cash spend over 1500 a month on food? Are they eating steak and lobster every meal?

I'm not knocking peoples food expenditures though if you've got the money. If food is your thing and you can afford it, go right ahead and spend away. I'm just shocked by this articles premise which is people living paycheck to paycheck that displays a monthly food expenditure almost four times what I spend.

[Cortopassi]

Family of 4 we spent about $577 a month last year. Target unfortunately gets categorized as groceries but is usually household stuff, so probably in the high 4s to low 500s.

[doodle]

That's one thing (among many) that drives me crazy about the left. Most of these 'problems' could be mitigated very quickly through some common sense education. Politically though it's bad for business. People don't like to hear that largely their financial plight is because they are economic morons. The weakness on the left is infuriating to me.

Of course, this issue gets complicated though. If everyone making middle class wages were to adopt my spending habits to be able to live comfortably on 15k a year it would crater the economy and put many millions out of jobs.

I'm tired of the political right holding up free market economics as the solution to all our problems.

Nothin is that simple!

[pmward]

Yeah, eating out especially is ridiculously expensive these days. I very rarely eat out. When you prepare all your own meals it's so much cheaper. But yeah, people are lazy. And I do agree that this is a problem in our country, most people either being too lazy, not knowing how, or being unwilling to budget. Personally I budget $80 per week for food to give a buffer, but most weeks it's more like $50-60 I actually spend, and I don't exactly have a small appetite since I am very active.

[doodle]

Deleted

[pmward]

Yeah, eating out especially is ridiculously expensive these days. I very rarely eat out. When you prepare all your own meals it's so much cheaper. But yeah, people are lazy. And I do agree that this is a problem in our country, most people either being too lazy, not knowing how, or being unwilling to budget. Personally I budget $80 per week for food to give a buffer, but most weeks it's more like $50-60 I actually spend, and I don't exactly have a small appetite since I am very active.

A large reason I'm able to get to my numbers is my limited meat intake...I'd say less than 12 ounces a day on average often substituted by eggs or dairy. If you eat steak everyday it would be very hard to hit those numbers. Up here in Montana one would be smart to learn how to hunt if one were to want a diet like that. One Bison could probably feed a family for a year. I've been giving a lot of thought to big game hunting...it's so efficient. I just have a hard time killing things. I'm too far removed from the desperation and dangers of hunger that makes such things instinctual.

For me today will look like..

Coffee, three eggs, two toast - 1.25

Vegetable pasta with chicken - 2.75

Nuts, peanut butter and fruit for snack or veges and hummus - 1.75

Burritos filled with Rice / beans/ chicken - 2.75

Oatmeal with some frozen fruit desert. . 75

I'm just estimating those numbers...but still a lot of food for under 10 bucks a day. My girlfriend is probably about half my calories...so that helps bring our grocery bill down to around 400 a month. I probably eat 3/4 of food...but then again I do a lot of physical work.

Yeah I'm mostly vegetarian. I eat meat maybe a couple times a month (usually only if I'm eating out with people or eating over someone's house). My diet actually looks very similar to yours only substituting dairy in for the meat. Lots of single ingredient foods and almost no processed foods. It's really not hard to eat a healthy balanced diet cheap if you prepare most of your own meals.

[dualstow]

I used to spend about $300 on groceries for the two of us and $6,000 a year dining out. Now, it's sporadic takeout, next to nothing.
I'm spending more on groceries now because I get a lot more from farmers markets than I used to. For example, $6 for a dozen of XL eggs, some of which turn out to be small, when a dozen is $3 at my local. $7 for romanesco broccoli.

There's a seafood truck that used to service restaurants and now it serves average joes. Minimum is 2lbs, and the price is often $26-32.

However, we don't waste much food.

...
I spent $286/mo on "groceries" this year, of which maybe $250 was for food.
...

The rest was on soil and fertilizer, or napkins, coffee filters and fancy doilies for coasters?

[Kriegsspiel]

...
I spent $286/mo on "groceries" this year, of which maybe $250 was for food.
...

The rest was on soil and fertilizer, or napkins, coffee filters and fancy doilies for coasters?

Hah. Well, I got a Costco membership this year. A lot of their minimum quantities are 12+ months of supply for me.

[vnatale]

...
I spent $286/mo on "groceries" this year, of which maybe $250 was for food.
...

The rest was on soil and fertilizer, or napkins, coffee filters and fancy doilies for coasters?

Hah. Well, I got a Costco membership this year. A lot of their minimum quantities are 12+ months of supply for me.

If they are non-perishable item, e.g., canned or packaged goods then you'll simply be "sitting long" on that food investment. Whenever I see any of my regularly consumed food products for sale I buy all that are on the shelves. It's an instant return on your investment rather than buying them as you go at non-sale prices. That is what allowed me to go without buying any food from mid-March to mid-June this year because my "normal" buying patterns left me with a huge stock of food in my basement.

Vinny

[Kriegsspiel]

If they are non-perishable item, e.g., canned or packaged goods then you'll simply be "sitting long" on that food investment. Whenever I see any of my regularly consumed food products for sale I buy all that are on the shelves. It's an instant return on your investment rather than buying them as you go at non-sale prices. That is what allowed me to go without buying any food from mid-March to mid-June this year because my "normal" buying patterns left me with a huge stock of food in my basement.

Vinny

Yup, I agree. It's Alpha Strategy, baby! I believe I remember reading that Mark Cuban talked up this idea as well. As well as a bunch of other people, so it's not exactly a secret.

I will, however, be downgrading my Costco membership to the basic level this year since I likely won't be spending enough to merit the Executive membership anymore.

[dualstow]

I remember near the beginning of this pandemic, you (kriegs) said you had “a ton of meat” in your freezer.

[Kriegsspiel]

I did indeed.

[vnatale]

If they are non-perishable item, e.g., canned or packaged goods then you'll simply be "sitting long" on that food investment. Whenever I see any of my regularly consumed food products for sale I buy all that are on the shelves. It's an instant return on your investment rather than buying them as you go at non-sale prices. That is what allowed me to go without buying any food from mid-March to mid-June this year because my "normal" buying patterns left me with a huge stock of food in my basement.

Vinny

Yup, I agree. It's Alpha Strategy, baby! I believe I remember reading that Mark Cuban talked up this idea as well. As well as a bunch of other people, so it's not exactly a secret.

I will, however, be downgrading my Costco membership to the basic level this year since I likely won't be spending enough to merit the Executive membership anymore.

Has anyone else here read Andrew Tobias's books?

https://andrewtobias.com/books/

He was one of my early favorite personal finance book writers and I'd buy and read every version of his: THE ONLY INVESTMENT GUIDE YOU’LL EVER NEED.

I stole his line wherein he stated...."I'm currently sitting long on two cases of tuna fish that I bought...".

The prior exchange between us inspired me to get out of this chair and go to the basement to organize about 20 -25 grocery bags of food that were just sitting on the basement floor.

Wednesday night I set my all-time record for one day's shopping at a super market. For one person I spent $348! It was almost all what I described above. Clearing the shelf if it was on sale. But it was also stocking up on two items that are part of "The Permanent Tooth and Mouth Care System". I get extremely nervous when I see I'm down to only one of something that I regularly use. I never want to have to make a special trip to buy anything. Thus I bought so that I'd have a several months supply on hand. In addition to saving money by buying that way, you also save a ton of time compared to going every week and just buying what you need that week. But you do not want to be behind me! For that reason I let two people behind me go ahead of me since they had such tiny purchase compared to my two full shopping carts worth of buying. I did not want to put them through the agony of waiting for everything I bought to get rung up and bagged. You definitely did not want to get behind me when I was buying 200 cans of cat food! Luckily I've solved the problem that was causing me by now getting all that same cat food through Amazon subscribe and save and automatic delivery.

Vinny

[WiseOne]

My grocery spending went way down when I switched to eating low carb, even with the increase in grocery prices that happened with COVID and the extra money I spent on grassfed/pastured meats. The community garden plot helped too.

Low carb forces you to stop buying convenience foods and snacks. Those things really add up. It also spoils your taste for eating out, because you quickly realize that almost everything you're served in a restaurant is packed with sugar and skimpy on meat ingredients. Even while I didn't have a working kitchen, I very rarely got takeout food.

Of course, I then went and blew a stack of money on a kitchen renovation. It's going to add to the value of the apartment though, so it's not exactly disappeared.

[Tyler]

I just don't understand how I'm supposed to have any sympathy for these two. First off, their income doubled during pandemic. Secondly, how on earth do two people supposedly strapped for cash spend over 1500 a month on food? Are they eating steak and lobster every meal?

The spending on food is just one symptom of the larger problem. During a pandemic when they both can't find much work, they decided it was
a good time to increase their overall spending by 50% fueled by unemployment income they know won't last. Being good with money is a mindset, and it's always a little disappointing when articles like this choose to cover people who just don't have it. My working theory is that there's a quota of at least one troll profile per article to drive people crazy just for the clicks.

[dualstow]

...
Low carb forces you to stop buying convenience foods and snacks. Those things really add up.
...

But pasta and ramen

[vnatale]

...
Low carb forces you to stop buying convenience foods and snacks. Those things really add up.
...

But pasta and ramen

I'm sure that with the age of many of the forum members that many are familiar with Aerosmith and their lead singer Steve Tyler?

It was the summer of 1973. Their first album had only been out less than a year and their second was still nearly a year away.

I was in a music club with someone in Boston. All of a sudden I recognized that Steve Tyler was walking around in it. I went up to him to talk to him.

Now for the few years prior I'd managed a rock band and there was always this tension with bands of playing their original music, which was not necessarily what the audience wanted to hear, or playing covers (other people's music) which the audience ALWAYS wanted to play.

It was a tension between being an artist or being commercial. Wanting to be hired our band did mostly covers with some originals thrown in.

Therefore when I'm about to talk to Steve Tyler this is the burning question on my mind.

I ask him, "How did you make it? Did you used to play a lot of covers?"

He said, "No.", which startled me. I was nearly speechless but I managed to then follow up with, "Then how did you survive?"

47+ years later I STILL remember his answer! "A lot of white rice and Campbell's soup!" Then he walked away.

I guess spending more time with this intense, serious person was not his idea of a fun night in a music club!

Vinny

[WiseOne]

...
Low carb forces you to stop buying convenience foods and snacks. Those things really add up.
...

But pasta and ramen

The pasta and ramen are cheap, yeah. But, those things make you hungry for between meal snacks: crackers, chips, cookies etc. That's what adds up - not just on the scale but also at the cash register. I was really surprised at that little side benefit, because I assumed my spending would go up when I started eating more meat.

Also, eliminating grains & sugar had some other benefits: a lot of niggling health problems disappeared. Not having to buy a lot of ibuprofen, cortisone cream, orthotics, and other stuff I needed to deal with those stupid little problems saved a lot of money too.

[l82start]

...
Low carb forces you to stop buying convenience foods and snacks. Those things really add up.
...

But pasta and ramen

The pasta and ramen are cheap, yeah. But, those things make you hungry for between meal snacks: crackers, chips, cookies etc. That's what adds up - not just on the scale but also at the cash register. I was really surprised at that little side benefit, because I assumed my spending would go up when I started eating more meat.

Also, eliminating grains & sugar had some other benefits: a lot of niggling health problems disappeared. Not having to buy a lot of ibuprofen, cortisone cream, orthotics, and other stuff I needed to deal with those stupid little problems saved a lot of money too.

+1

[Mountaineer]

Steak, fish, shrimp, salad and green veggies. Not overly expensive for a month.

Old single malt scotch whisky - priceless.

But who's counting.


.

[Kriegsspiel]

I'm sure that with the age of many of the forum members that many are familiar with Aerosmith and their lead singer Steve Tyler?

It was the summer of 1973. Their first album had only been out less than a year and their second was still nearly a year away.

I was in a music club with someone in Boston. All of a sudden I recognized that Steve Tyler was walking around in it. I went up to him to talk to him.

Now for the few years prior I'd managed a rock band and there was always this tension with bands of playing their original music, which was not necessarily what the audience wanted to hear, or playing covers (other people's music) which the audience ALWAYS wanted to play.

It was a tension between being an artist or being commercial. Wanting to be hired our band did mostly covers with some originals thrown in.

Therefore when I'm about to talk to Steve Tyler this is the burning question on my mind.

I ask him, "How did you make it? Did you used to play a lot of covers?"

He said, "No.", which startled me. I was nearly speechless but I managed to then follow up with, "Then how did you survive?"

47+ years later I STILL remember his answer! "A lot of white rice and Campbell's soup!" Then he walked away.

I guess spending more time with this intense, serious person was not his idea of a fun night in a music club!

Vinny

That's a great story.

[pp4me]

We spend about $600 per month for he three of us but that doesn't include eating out which we do about once a week. Or occasionally picking up some carryout because I'm the cook and I'm feeling lazy.

We eat well on that budget. It would probably be higher if I didn't do IF with only one meal a day.

I have a cashback American Express card that refunds 6% at grocery stores but they don't take it at Costco - only my 2% Visa.

[vnatale]

We spend about $600 per month for he three of us but that doesn't include eating out which we do about once a week. Or occasionally picking up some carryout because I'm the cook and I'm feeling lazy.

We eat well on that budget. It would probably be higher if I didn't do IF with only one meal a day.

I have a cashback American Express card that refunds 6% at grocery stores but they don't take it at Costco - only my 2% Visa.

What is the annual fee on the American Express card? Is that the Blue Card?

Which is your 2% VIsa? I get 2% on the CashBack card.

Every time I do the breakeven on the 6% American Express Card regarding it's additional 4% against the fee it never seems to work.

Vinny